After a five-month lockout, a four-month season and a month-and-a-half of playoffs that culminated in a thrilling two weeks of conference finals, the NBA winds up with what most wanted all along—a repeat of last year’s NBA Finals, but with a twist. We still have LeBron James and the big, bad Heat wearing the black hats and playing the villains. This time around, though, Dirk Nowtizki’s good-guy role is taken over by Kevin Durant. That’s a nice set of circumstances, because Durant is only 23 and figures to play the part of the anti-LeBron for years to come.

That will be the first-blush storyline, but of course, there is a lot more to this matchup than the cliché of James and the Heat as villains (let it go, already) and the Thunder as the humble, hard-working young bunch from the heartland, admirable fellows who are in bed by 10:30 and love their moms. (Anyone taking wagers on the number of shots of Durant’s mother ABC will load up on?)

LeBron James and Kevin Durant look to take their budding rivalry to the 2012 NBA finals. (AP Photo)

Whatever your personal feelings on James, there is no denying he was worthy of the league’s MVP trophy, just as there is no denying that Durant was worthy of his second-place finish. A case could be made that Durant, the league’s scoring champion, should have won it, but that’s irrelevant.

What matters is that we have a rare circumstance here: the two best players in the league, playing in the NBA Finals. This will mark the first time since 1998 (when Michael Jordan’s Bulls and Karl Malone’s Jazz squared off) that the top two MVP vote-getters reached this stage together. And they’re two guys who have been in competition all year, including their MVP battle; their duel at the All-Star game, where each scored 36 points; and even going back to the lockout, when Durant spent a few rough days working out with James in Akron, Ohio.

James said he had a feeling this would come. “I envisioned it every day we worked out,” he said. “I understood what his passion was. I understood what his drive was. We pushed each other every single day. That four-day span, we called it hell week, that we worked out in Akron. He was a little upset about (last year’s West final) series in Dallas, where they got eliminated by Dallas, and I was as well. So we pushed each other each and every day. I envisioned us getting to this point. Like I said, I was happy for him that he's able to get to the Finals. I’m looking forward to going against him.”

Given their ages and experience levels, there’s no doubt James will be under far greater scrutiny and pressure than Durant. That type of pressure rattled James in the Finals last year, his first with the Heat and the one that followed his regrettable proclamation that the Heat would bring “not three, not four, not five” championships to Miami. At the same time, the lack of pressure on the Mavericks made the game easier for them as that series went on.

Consider that a major advantage for Durant, whose national coming-out party is marked by this series. He has actually gotten better in this postseason as the stakes have gotten higher, with some memorable late-game performances and a shooting percentage and scoring average that have improved in each round. In the conference finals against the Spurs, he averaged 29.5 points and shot 53.2 percent from the field.

James did the same, culminating in averages of 33.6 points and 52.7 percent shooting against Boston in the East finals. But as Durant’s arrival in the Finals will be celebrated, James’ will be viewed through the lens of last year’s failure against Dallas, and his failure to win a championship so far in his nine NBA seasons. James should be used to that by now—while the focus on his rival will be on what he has accomplished in getting here, the focus for James will be on what he has not accomplished yet.

The two best players are here in the NBA Finals, but they come in with two very different sets of baggage.